Max Allan Collins

Max Allan Collins (born March 3, 1948) is an American mystery writer. He has written novels, screenplays, comic books, comic strips, trading cards, short stories, movie novelizations and historical fiction. He wrote the graphic novel Road to Perdition (which was developed into a film in 2002), created the comic book private eye Ms. Tree, and took over writing the Dick Tracy comic strip from creator Chester Gould and one of the Batman comic books for a time. He wrote books to expand on the Dark Angel TV series. He has also written books and comics based on the TV series franchise CSI. In 2006 he wrote Buried Deep (also released as "Bones Buried Deep"), based on the TV series Bones.

He has also written two sequel novels to Road to Perdition: Road to Purgatory and Road to Paradise. He also wrote three more graphic novels starring the characters from Road to Perdition. These graphic novels, called collectively On the Road to Perdition, form the basis of the film.

He also co-founded the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers with Lee Goldberg. The IAMTW is an organization for writers of tie-ins and novelizations.

Collins studied in the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Collins is a fan of the mystery writer Mickey Spillane from childhood and later became friends with him. The two collaborated on a comic book series in the 1990s called Mike Danger. Upon Spillane's death in 2006, Collins was entrusted to finish several uncompleted works by Spillane including Dead Street, The Goliath Bone, and The Big Bang. Several other uncompleted works may be finished by Collins and published in the future.

§Selected bibliography

§Quarry series

This series features a former US Marine sniper, turned professional assassin after returning from Vietnam in 1973.

• Quarry (a.k.a. The Broker) (1976)
• Quarry's List (a.k.a. The Broker's Wife) (1976)
• Quarry's Deal (a.k.a. The Dealer) (1976)
• Quarry's Cut (a.k.a. The Slasher) (1977)
• Quarry's Vote (a.k.a. Primary Target) (1987)
• Quarry's Greatest Hits (2003)
• The Last Quarry (2006)
• The First Quarry (2008)
• Quarry In The Middle (2009)
• Quarry's Ex (2010)
• The Wrong Quarry (2014)
• Quarry's Choice (2015)

Cinemax has ordered a 1970s-set drama pilot to Quarry. Written by Michael D. Fuller and Graham Gordy based loosely on a series of books by Collins, the project centers on a Marine marksman who, upon returning home from Vietnam in 1973, finds himself shunned by those he loves and demonized by the public. The disillusioned vet is quickly recruited into a network of contract killers and corruption spanning the Mississippi River.

§Nolan series

This series features a professional thief, similar to and apparently inspired by Richard Stark's "Parker" character, who operates in the Midwest.

• Bait Money (1981)
• Blood Money (1981)
• Fly Paper (1981)
• Hush Money (1981)
• Hard Cash (1981)
• Scratch Fever (1982)
• Spree (1987)
• Mourn the Living (1999) (Max Allan Collins's first written novel, but not printed until 1999)
• Two for the Money (omnibus reprint of the first two books Bait Money and Blood Money) (2004)

§Mallory series

The Mallory series is about a mystery writer in Iowa who solves crimes.

• The Baby Blue Rip-Off (1983)
• No Cure for Death (1983)
• Kill Your Darlings (1984)
• A Shroud for Aquarius (1985)
• Nice Weekend for a Murder (1986)

§Nathan Heller series

Collins's longest running series and arguably his best known work is his Nathan Heller series. Heller is a Chicago private investigator who gets involved in famous crimes and meets famous people of the 1930s and 1940s, including Orson Welles, Frank Nitti, and Sally Rand. The first novel in this historical fiction series, True Detective, won the 1984 Shamus Award for Best P.I. Hardcover from the Private Eye Writers of America. Collins won his second Shamus in 1992 for the Heller novel Stolen Away, an account of the Lindbergh kidnapping. His 1999 novel Flying Blind sees Heller investigate the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, along the way becoming romantically involved with her. With the release of Chicago Confidential, Collins moved the action into the 1950s. Target Lancer, about an alleged attempt to assassinate JFK in Chicago just weeks before the actual assassination in Dallas, was published in November 2012.

• True Detective (November, 1983)
• True Crime (December, 1984)
• The Million-Dollar Wound (February, 1986)
• Neon Mirage (February, 1988)
• Stolen Away (May, 1991)
• Dying in the Post-War World (October, 1991) â€" Short story collection
• Carnal Hours (April, 1994)
• Blood and Thunder (August, 1995) (about Huey Long's assassination)
• Damned in Paradise (October, 1996)
• Flying Blind (August, 1998)
• Majic Man (September, 1999)
• Angel in Black (March, 2001)
• Kisses of Death: A Nathan Heller Casebook (June, 2001) â€" Short story collection
• Chicago Confidential (June, 2002)
• Bye Bye, Baby (August 2011)
• Chicago Lightning: The Collected Nathan Heller Short Stories (October 2011)
• Triple Play: A Nathan Heller Casebook (April 2012) â€" Includes "Dying in the Post-War World", "Kisses of Death", and "Strike Zone"
• Target Lancer (Nov 2012)
• Ask Not (2013)

§Eliot Ness series

This series of novels is about real life Untouchable Eliot Ness's career as Director of Public Safety in Cleveland.

• The Dark City (1987)
• Butcher's Dozen (1988)
• Bullet Proof (1989)
• Murder by the Numbers (1993)

§Dick Tracy series

• Dick Tracy (May, 1990), film novelization
• Dick Tracy: The Secret Files (June 1990), Editor (with Martin H. Greenberg), also contains short story Not a Creature Was Stirring
• Dick Tracy and the Nightmare Machine with Dick Locher (January, 1991) â€" comic strip collection
• Dick Tracy Goes to War (February, 1991) â€" novel
• Dick Tracy Meets his Match (February 1992) â€" novel
• Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles, Vol. 1(October, 2003) â€" comic strip collection
• Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles Volume 2 (October, 2004) â€" comic strip collection
• Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles Volume 3 (January, 2005)- comic strip collection

§Novelizations

• In the Line of Fire (1993)
• Maverick (1994)
• I Love Trouble (1994)
• Waterworld (1995)
• Air Force One (1997)
• U.S. Marshals (1998)
• Saving Private Ryan (August, 1998)
• The Mummy (May, 1999)
• U-571 (2000)
• The Mummy Returns (2001)
• The Scorpion King (2002)
• Windtalkers (April, 2002)
• I-Spy (October, 2002)
• The Pink Panther (July, 2005).
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (July, 2008)
• The X-Files: I Want to Believe (July, 2008)
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
  • G.I. Joe: Above and Beyond (2009)

§Road to Perdition series

(*)Note: Road to Perdition: On the Road, is a single-volume collection of On the Road to Perdition Books 1â€"3.

§Disaster series

• The Titanic Murders (April 1999)
• The Hindenburg Murders (June 2000)
• The Pearl Harbor Murders (May 2001)
• The Lusitania Murders (November 2002)
• The London Blitz Murders (May 2004)
• The War of the World Murders (July 2005)

§CSI: Crime Scene Investigation novels

(**)Note: Mortal Wounds, is a trade paperback omnibus which collects Double Dealer, Sin City, and Cold Burn into a single volume.

§CSI: Miami novels

§Criminal Minds novels

§Jack & Maggie Starr series

A mystery series set in and around the American comic book industry during the tail end of the Golden Age of Comic Books

• A Killing in Comics (May 2007) â€" A murder mystery set around a fictionalized version of the Superman ownership dispute
• Strip for Murder (May 2008) â€" A fictionalized version of the Al Capp/Ham Fisher feud and Fisher's suicide
• Seduction of the Innocent (June 2013) â€" A murder mystery set around a fictionalized version of Frederic Wertham's crusade against comic books

§Writing as Barbara Allan (with wife Barbara Collins): Trash 'n' Treasure series

• Antiques Roadkill (August 2006)
• Antiques Maul (August 2007)
• Antiques Flee Market (September 2008)
• Antiques Bizarre (March 2010)
• Antiques Knock-Off (March 2011)
• Antiques Disposal (May 2012)

§Writing as Patrick Culhane

• Black Hats (April 2007) â€" A novel featuring Wyatt Earp and Al Capone in 1920s New York
• Red Sky in Morning (August 2008) â€" A historic mystery set in San Francisco during World War II, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

§Miscellaneous

• Midnight Haul (1986)
• Protect and Defend (1992)
• Blue Christmas and other Holiday Homicides (2001)
• Deadly Beloved - A Ms. Tree Novel (See Comics Section) (2007)

§Comics

• Wild Dog #1â€"4. The title character was also featured in several serialized stories in Action Comics during its weekly publication phase in 1988â€"1989.
• Batman #402â€"403, #408â€"412
• Johnny Dynamite: Underworld
• Mike Danger (co-created by Mickey Spillane) 1â€"11 (vol.1), 1â€"10 (vol.2)
• Ms. Tree

§Movies and music

In addition to his work as a writer, Collins has also written and directed four movies: Mommy, Mommy 2: Mommy's Day, Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market, and Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life (based on his Edgar Awardâ€"nominated play). All four were produced independently on location in Collins' hometown of Muscatine, Iowa. The first three are available on DVD â€" separately or in the Black Box set â€" from Troma Team Video, and the Ness film is distributed by VCI Entertainment.

Collins has also written and performed music with his rock band, Crusin'.

§Political views

Collins is a Democrat, describing his political views thusly: "I think of myself as slightly left of center, but my father thought of himself as slightly right of center, when he was slightly right of Genghis Khan. So who knows? I do know that I veer left when the right is getting out of hand, which they frequently do."

§References

§External links

• Official website
• The Max Allan Collins Papers are housed at the University of Iowa Special Collections & University Archives.
• Article about Max Allan Collins at Thrilling Detective
• Pierce, J. Kingston. "Killers, Cover-ups and Max Allan Collins." The Rap Sheet, July 29, 2009.
• Shotsmag Ezine Interview November 3, 2011
• The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, which he co-founded with Lee Goldberg
• Criminal Minds Fan Site